Religion is a set of beliefs. Atheism is an absence of belief on a single, fundamental issue. Atheism may take on some of the characteristics of religion when espoused by some groups, but that does not make atheism itself a religion.

^Atheism does not require an absolute belief in the non-existence of God. That is a straw-man used by theists in an attempt to discredit atheism. There are fundamentalist atheists who take a hard line and say categorically that God does not exist. Just as there are fundamentalist Xtians who say that the world was created 6,000 years ago. I quoted wikipedia on Practical Atheism to illustrate the form of atheism that loosely matches my lack of belief - and Practical Atheism does not deny the existence of God. There are many other forms of atheism that do not require an absolute belief in the non-existence of God.

You are taking one definition of atheism and attempting to stretch that to fit all of atheism.

I knew a family years ago who were all atheists. 3 generations, from the partiarch down. Their belief in the non-existence of God was based on the fact that Adam and Eve only had sons so who did they marry? As a teenager in the 1950s one of them was sitting on the outside dunny (toilet) and looking up at the sky when he thought he saw a star move... he phoned the newspaper and the next day the front page headline of the tabloid was "UFO seen in Punchbowl", with a picture of a flying saucer. This was a major Sydney newspaper. So from that time on the whole family believed every conspiracy theory going about aliens and UFOs. None of them believed in evolution, rather that we had been placed here by aliens for some great purpose. Now if atheism were a religion I would be able to identify some common belief with these people. But guess what - I think they were all mental and none of what they believed and disbelieved made any sense whatsoever to me. And yet they were atheists just like me.

I just found a good website about atheism. The following is a good starting point that clears up a lot of the misconceptions and misrepresentations about what atheism is:

http://atheism.about.com/od/definitionof...theism.htm

Not really. Also, if one has a look at the bio for the person who wrote that, one will find that he's hardly coming at the subject from an objective point of view.

Whereas myself, neither theist nor atheist - I may be seen by some as objective, but in actuality I am not so much. I have my own set of beliefs.

I am only unbiased in that I am biased against both of the aforementioned beliefs in such a way that I do not bother really with the minor differences - I perceive the two to be as one in that if people just kept personal beliefs that have no bearing on anything outside of themselves to themselves, there'd be a lot less useless conflict in the world.

Also,

Cleverish, but makes no sense as worded. In order to have hair color, one must have hair. It does not follow however that in order to have a religion, one must believe in a god or gods. The only requirement (as mentioned before) is a set of beliefs.

I think that's the point. There is no common set of beliefs among all atheists. Atheism is simply defined by its lack of belief in one thing. That's the only thing that all atheists share in common.

Some atheists do actively believe that there is no god, and they tend to be the most vocal. Just like some christians actively believe that all doctors who perform abortions should be murdered, and they tend to be the most vocal. It makes no sense to generalize all of a particular group based on a few vocal individuals, when others are telling you that we do not agree with them.

I guess one way to explain it is this: Do you actively disbelieve in Poseidon, or does Poseidon just not enter into your belief set.

I have yet to encounter an atheist who has merely proclaimed a lack of belief in one thing. They all have attempted to qualify their lack of belief to me when questioned, using other beliefs (which are commonly shared amongst atheists) to do so.

ex.) evil in the world
ex.) lack of physical evidence
ex.) no proof of the existance of god or gods
ex.) the christian bible is based on astrology, which is also voodoo, which is also voodoo, which is also voodoo

What a word - 'voodoo'. I like it. I do not practice it, though have been accused of it when arguing semantics.

Atheism is a set of beliefs, and therefore is synonymous with religion.

What you're describing is a reason for that lack of belief. I agree that many of the reasons are similar, but it still has to do with the same lack of belief. You will find some disagreement, though.

If you were to ask atheists about all of their beliefs that do not have to do with God, you will probably get about as many different responses as people you ask (unless you stick to things that most humans generally agree on, such as murder is bad).

By the way, I would consider Confucianism and Taoism to be atheist religions, since neither one believes in any supreme beings. I think Buddhism falls into the same category, but I don't remember all the details.

I guess my point here is that atheism and religion are not the same, nor are they mutually exclusive. Plus, two atheists might have as much in common between their beliefs as a Christian and a Muslim. Then again, a different pair of atheists might share as much in common as two people that sit next to each other in church every week.

If you were to ask theists about all of their beliefs that do not have to do with God, you will probably get about as many different responses as people you ask (unless you stick to things that most humans generally agree on, such as murder is bad). And then there's me, but I am no different.

This post was last modified: 01-09-2011 09:45 PM by ZodRau.

If you were to ask theists about all of their beliefs that do not have to do with God, you will probably get about as many different responses as people you ask (unless you stick to things that most humans generally agree on, such as murder is bad).

See my post above (#26).

I'm sure it's been cited before in this thread somehwere, but as I skimmed through and picked which post caught my eye as an entrance into the discussion instead of reading the whole thing, I'll go ahead and state it (again?).

atheism:from the Greek ἄθεος (atheos), meaning "without god"

While I agree with you that confucianism and taoism are atheistic religions, I would find just as much of a problem semantically with self-identified atheists as with self-identified theists who claim to be confucianists or taoists and visa versa. To the first two, deity is an issue. The belief or disbelief in deity is essential to the identifications 'theist' and 'atheist'. To the latter two, deity is not an issue. There is neither belief nor disbelief in deity. Deity is not involved in the identifications 'confucianist' and 'taoist'.

In other words, believe in deity or don't believe in deity, but if you're (generally speaking - not you particularly) concerned enough about deity to believe or disbelieve in it, then you are connected to it.

If you choose not to decide, you still have made a choice

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